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1.3.7-Kingedmundsroyalmurder
Brick!club chapter seven: of pretension, assholes, and secondhand embarassment First thing’s first: I have acquired a copy of the Julie Rose translation because it was cheaper than the Denny because I am too lazy to keep doing my own translating because that translation is hilarious for the sake of comparison. So there may be some referring to that from here on out. On to the chapter itself. Given what I know of Hugo and how he’s written his book so far I’m going to assume the title of this chapter is meant ironically. Because Tholomyes is not dispensing wisdom, he’s dispensing condescending and pretentious bullshit, complete with unnecessary name/reference dropping and self-congratulation in the form of unasked for advice. At least his friends try to shut him down, albeit fairly ineffectively. I agree that the usual reaction to terrible puns is usually not silence, unless they’re shocked into it by how very bad the pun really was. The usual reaction to terrible puns in my experience is a chorus of people going, “Carlooos!’ or a non-reference equivilant. I would try to analyze his actual speech properly and point out the ridiculousness of it, but he doesn’t deserve that kind of attention and also what is brainpower? So we’ll do the rapid-fire version of this instead. -The mediocre pun works basically the same way as Bossuet’s name, it’s just less clever and made by an asshole. -Tholomyes if you have to explain the joke it’s not funny and if you have to explain it away as not supposed to be funny you need to stop talking because you’re just digging yourself into a hole. -Yes, we know that you like to hear yourself talk. You don’t need to actually say it. -Felix and Favourite are quite well matched, aren’t they? I can only conclude that she knows she’s too good for him. -Blachevelle, bless your heart, you have no idea how much I appreciate your repeated attempts to get him to shut up. Shame he doesn’t actually take the time to listen to anyone but himself. -Yeah, no, Tholomyes clearly prefers Favourite out of all of them (cynicism recognizes cynicism I guess?) -Anyone with more knowledge and better functioning braincells want to explain why passing from poetry to prose necessitates a shift from tu to vous? -Fantine exists in a dream world, uses her fantasies and illusions to guard herself against the cruelties and harshness of this one, and loves the idea of a man rather than the man himself. Gosh, this isn’t sounding at all familiar, is it? (A comment about how oppression manifests again and again and how just waiting for things to get better isn’t going to change anything, maybe? Because Eponine and Fantine have parallel histories as well as similar tendencies towards relying on dreams to cope with reality. (Okay, Eponine’s childhood may have been happier, but Fantine still went from happy/innocent/beautiful to none of the above just like Eponine and they both found their final refuge and peace in death.)) -Lookit, a reference to tuberculosis. That couldn’t possibly be foreshadowing, right? (Actually for Hugolian foreshadowing that’s almost subtle.) -So you started by telling us not to be too exuberant and you finish by telling us to be exuberant as possible. Can you at least be internally consistent in your asshattery? Commentary Pilferingapples OH MY GOSH I PASSED RIGHT BY THE TUBERCULOSIS REF, Hugo, you sly devil! You CAN do subtle when you want! You just never want. The Eponine/Fantine connection, wow, yes, I hadn’t thought of it that way, but you’re totally right. And both of them are wrecked largely because of the way society gives their lives over to men, and then blames only the women for it— Fantine with her lover, Eponine with her father. Neither of them has anywhere to turn for hope because they’re carrying the stigma for what someone else did to them. OUCH. Well spotted, and OUCH. Kingedmundsroyalmurder (reply to Pilferingapples) Oooh, I hadn’t even considered how their respective menfolk play into their stories and humiliations. But yeah, that’s definitely another point of connection between them. Treblemirinlens I really should have something to say other than OMG MAGIC SCHOOL BUS. But I don’t. Bravo. Columbina I really enjoy how we’ve moved past being angry at Tholomyes and now we’re just snarking at him until he leaves. We just don’t care any more. Also, I’m surprised Hugo didn’t bring back the quotation marks for “Wisdom” in the title. But anyway, ooo, I hadn’t thought about Fantine/Eponine parallels, but I like it. Except that the illusions Eponine holds make sense and I still have ZERO IDEA what could possibly have drawn Fantine to this bloke when she must have had other suitors, if she was as pretty as Hugo says. (Unless she was so pretty that all the other guys turned shy and only someone with Tholomyes’ ego would even try talking to her.) (Or he was like Mr. Darling and got a cab and so beat all the other boys to her.) Kingedmundsroyalmurder (reply to Columbina) Okay, so here’s my Theory About Fantine And Tholomyes: 1- Fantine, because she is so Good and Pure and Innocent, looks past physical beauty (or the lack thereof) because inner beauty is what matters. 2- Tholomyes, because he is an Asshole, pretends to be internally beautiful until she agrees to sleep with him. He flatters her and gives her little gifts and she’s too naive to realize that even as he’s doing that he’s making fun of her. We know that he can be charming(ish) given his description of Favourite in his extended monologue, so he applied those skills to wooing Fantine. 3-By the time they slept together she was completely in love with him and possibly convinced that he was only an asshole in public to keep up appearances or something. 4-After that it was too late and he knew she wouldn’t leave so he didn’t even bother trying to be nice and charming in private, or at least not as much as he had earlier. Columbina (reply to Kingedmundsroyalmurder's reply) 4. Plus she apparently ALREADY HAS HER KID, so, you know, it’s always hard to play the dating game as a single mum. I like it though, but will add to it “''no other guys approached her because they were overwhelmed by her perfection''” to it, because that’s my biggest stumbling block, is that she must have had better offers, and that’s the only explanation I’ve got. Or she was so modest that they thought she was turning them down and it took someone with Tholomyes’ persistence to get her.